The present application relates to hands-on sketching and measuring tools, rulers, protractors, devices for creating and measuring arcs and circular geometric shapes, and the like.
While many mechanical devices and methods have been proposed for creating circular shapes, the most common of these is the straight-ruler and compass-pencil method, where a straight ruler is first used to set a distance between a center point and a point on the circumference of a circle (a radius), the needle of the compass is placed at the desired center point of a circle, usually on a piece of paper, and finally the point of the compass-attached writing instrument is placed on the same writing medium and used to trace out either an arc or a full circumference by simply rotating the compass and writing instrument about the center point. Another popular method for creating circular arcs is to use arc and circle stencils, where the user can select from pre-determined radii of either single- or multi-shape stencils and trace said circles and arcs with a writing instrument.
Similarly, the most common method for measuring circular arcs is by using a straight measuring ruler or caliper, an electronic straight ruler, and less notably, an arc or circle stencil. With a straight ruler or caliper, the user measures the point to point distance from onside of the circular object or circle, across its center point, to the opposite side—i.e., the diameter. With arc or circle stencils, the user measures an arc or circle by comparing it to the radii of pre-cut shapes, which have pre-determined sizes, and must decide which shape the measured shape is closest to or must interpolate between predetermined sizes.
However, many issues exist with these devices: e.g., for creating a circular shapes. For instance, the human eye has difficulty gauging whether one is measuring the diameter of circle object across the center point of that circular object, often because the object itself is only generally, but not exactly circular, or for instance, how close the radius or diameter of an object or curved line is to a specific size increment or set of size increments of a particular stencil arc. Needless to say, these methods introduce human error and therefore, inaccuracies. Further, some methods for sketching accurately-sized circles not only require more than one tool (a compass and straight ruler), but are also time inefficient and cumbersome. Additionally, the best information that can be attained without having to perform numerous calculations, are the radius and diameter. Information about the arc length or circumference and/or area of a sector or area of the circle at any diameter size are not indicated directly by a rule; they must be calculated, and while these calculations are simple, they can become tedious and cumbersome through repetition.
In short, no single device, hitherto, has either proposed a mechanism for or is capable of creating circles of infinitely adjustable sizes that allows the user to selectively and accurately create, measure, or obtain radius, diameter, arc length, and sector area, either individually or simultaneously.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device that resolves one or more of the aforesaid issues. At least one of the devices disclosed herein indeed does so and does so by introducing a novel and more intuitive mechanism and method for creating and measuring circular profiles and arcs of various sizes.